19 minute read
TCP Talk
CONTINUING A Christmas Ritual
Las Posadas sustains a centuries-old Mexican reenactment of the biblical story
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AS THE LIGHT FADES on a chilly December evening, a row of luminarias glows against the white facade of the Presidio Chapel of San Elizario. The luminarias, paper bags containing lit candles, outline an adobe museum next to the 140year-old church and extend around the plaza and on down the streets, giving the night a festive feel.
In the tree-lined plaza, a group of young people in costume gathers next to a gazebo. This is a dress rehearsal for Las Posadas, which translates as “the inns” and refers to a procession or play that reenacts the biblical story of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter in Bethlehem and the birth of
OPPOSITE Students reenact the biblical story of Mary and Joseph, who, led by angels, seek shelter in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. ABOVE A dazzling dancer at the San Elizario Luminaria Festival. Jesus. This telling of the Christmas story originated in 16thcentury Mexico and continues there and in cities and towns north of the Rio Grande with musicians and costumed children going from house to house on Christmas Eve.
San Elizario, southeast of El Paso, has strong historic ties to Mexico, and the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society has staged a mostly annual Las Posadas as part of its Luminarias Festival for some 20 years. Lillian Trujillo, president of the organization, says many of the participants are teens from San Elizario Catholic Church. “Sometimes we have to talk them into it; they’re shy,” Trujillo says. “We tell them that they don’t have to speak, that it’s just dressing up and walking around.” Older kids and adults sometimes fill in any gaps. For years, the costumes were an assortment of donated and leftover items, but in 2021, the society received enough donations to buy new ones. As the dress rehearsal wraps up, people spill from the church where Mass has just ended, joining a crowd beneath the trees. Dozens of small children play in the leaves. Customers line up at a food truck at the back of the plaza. Las Posadas begins. Students playing Mary and Joseph—the former perched on a real, live mule—make their way past the steps of the church, the mule’s hooves clopping on the pavement. In the gazebo, Trujillo reads the Christmas story aloud, her voice projected over speakers, as an “innkeeper” at the top of the steps turns the couple away. They continue on to the gazebo, where they settle on bales of hay, and the girl playing Mary pulls a baby doll from under her robe.
Youngsters dressed as wise men step forward to present their gifts: boxes representing gold, frankincense and myrrh. Under a nearby tree, the angels tell those dressed as shepherds the news of the baby’s arrival, and they all make their way into the gazebo to see him. The story is familiar to everyone here.
Las Posadas complete, the players scatter, some pausing to pet the placid mule. In front of the museum, boys and girls from a local folklórico class in traditional dress entertain the crowd with lively dances. Then the youngest kids take turns having a go at a giant piñata. Finally, Santa Claus shows up in a firetruck, sirens blaring and lights flashing, to hand out toys. The night ends with a drawing for bicycles, and every child entered takes home a shiny new bike and helmet, thanks to generous donations.
THE COMMUNITY spends weeks preparing for the festival, which is held on the second or third Saturday of December—December 17 this year.
Local families founded the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society in 1997 after a conversation at a family reunion about the importance of passing this area’s rich history on to younger generations. Board member Elizabeth Baker-Teran’s parents, Teresa and Miguel Teran, were among the founders. “They wanted to preserve the genealogical history of the families of San Elizario and the historical buildings that are still there and to educate the public about the hundreds of years of history,” Baker-Teran says. That history includes construction of the presidio chapel by the Spanish for members of the military and their families in 1788. That first chapel flooded in 1829, and another was built to take its place. In 1877, the existing, larger church was built. Its walls were repainted and the current electric lights installed in the 1950s. The Stations of the Cross on the walls inside date back to about 1918.
The church sits at the center of the community, literally and figuratively. In San Elizario, as in other small towns all along the Rio Grande, church bells once served as a timekeeper, ringing at noon to signal lunch break; when it was time for Mass; and to announce weddings, baptisms and deaths.
San Elizario anchors the El Paso Mission Trail, which includes two other historic missions. The Ysleta Mission, originally built in 1680, is considered the first and oldest mission established in Texas and is the second-oldest continually active Catholic parish in the U.S. The original Socorro Mission was completed in 1691, making it the second- oldest Texas mission; the current building dates to 1843.
Socorro Road, which runs from Ysleta to Socorro to San Elizario, is the designated Mission Trail. The 9-mile route follows a segment of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior), a trade and supply route that ran from Mexico City to present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico, linking communities, missions and presidios. The oldest road in North America and once the longest, El Camino Real, or what remains of it, was designated as a National Historic Trail in 2000.
Originally, San Elizario, Socorro and Ysleta all sat on the south bank of the Rio Grande, in what became the country
OPPOSITE A service inside the Presidio Chapel of San Elizario, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ABOVE Folklórico students perform dances that trace their origins to Indigenous peoples of Mexico.
of Mexico. In the 1829 flood, the river cut a new channel, leaving all three churches on the northern bank. When the U.S. declared the deepest channel of the Rio Grande as the international boundary with Mexico in 1848, these communities became part of the U.S.
The Los Portales Museum occupies a circa-1850 building in San Elizario and tells the area’s history. The exhibit room is small but contains a wealth of maps, photos and descriptions of significant events and everyday life in the area. At one point, the town supported a trade in salt from the Guadalupe Mountains. Local farmers employed a complex irrigation system to grow grapes, pears, onions and wheat, which was ground in a private gristmill.
Trujillo says that for many of the families that attend the Christmas festival, the evening fittingly has been about holiday fun. For Trujillo, whose family has been here since the 1700s, an annual Las Posadas is part of keeping that history alive. D
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GENERAL MANAGER’S MESSAGE
BRIAN R. ACOSTA
Merry Christmas from MVEC
The holidays are a time of reflection. I’m grateful for my own family as well as my co-op family at Magic Valley Electric Cooperative. We’re driven by a sense of mission and purpose, and our team feels a strong connection to our community and our members because we live here too.
While many of our community-focused programs and activities ramp up this time of year, we have several programs and services in place to help our members year-round. I’d like to remind you about some of these offerings, in hopes you’ll find them beneficial.
We hope you’ll take advantage of the MVEC web portal and MVEC mobile app, which empowers you to monitor your electricity usage and pay your energy bill.
Our Operation Round Up program helps the most vulnerable members of our community. By simply choosing to round up your electric bills to the next whole dollar, you can help your neighbors. If you’d like to participate in our Operation Round Up program, please contact us at 866-225-5683 or sign up through our web portal or the MVEC mobile app.
One of the most important investments we make is in our local youth. MVEC has awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships to local students through the years; these scholarships are funded by unclaimed capital credits. Under Texas law, electric cooperatives can apply to use a portion of unclaimed capital credits towards scholarships. In addition, each year, through our Governmentin-Action Youth Tour program, we send high school juniors and seniors to Washington, D.C. for an immersive weeklong experience of democracy in action.
At the heart of all these programs is you—the members we proudly serve. Looking back, I’m grateful for so many wonderful community partners and for the positive impact we can continue to make.
This holiday season, I wish you and your loved ones peace, joy and prosperity. Speaking on behalf of our team at MVEC, I know the future will be bright because of you.
FOLLOW US
Brian R. Acosta General Manager
MAGIC VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE P.O. Box 267 2200 West 2nd Street Mercedes, TX 78570
GENERAL MANAGER
Brian R. Acosta
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Martin E. Garcia, President Reynaldo L. Lopez, Vice President Barbara S. Miller, Secretary-Treasurer Rolando Alaniz, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Doug Martin, Board Member Adrienne Peña-Garza, Board Member Frank A. Ferris Board Member
PAYMENT OPTIONS • MVEC Connect App • Online bill payment • AutoPay • Visa, Discover, AMEX and Master Card accepted
DISTRICT OFFICES • 2910 W. Monte Cristo Road Edinburg, 78541 • 1825 N. Indiana Road Brownsville, 78521 • 1311 S. Cage Blvd Pharr, 78577
CONTACT US
For outages and all customer service inquiries CALL US 1-866-225-5683 Find us on the web magicvalley.coop
Don’t Dread the Post-Christmas Electric Bill
Opening Christmas Presents is fun, but opening the electricity bill after the holidays might not be. All the festivities—the gatherings, feasts and lights—can result in higher-than-normal post-holiday bills. But you can celebrate and ward off that big bill by being energy efficient.
Try these tips to help save. 1. Limit the duration of your lighting display. It’s tempting to go all out all the time with Christmas decorations, but limiting lighting time to six hours per night saves energy. 2. Switch to LED holiday lights, which use significantly less energy and last longer. 3. Use fiber-optic decorations, which usually have one central lightbulb rather than many dispersed bulbs. 4. On warm winter days, so common in the RGV, setting your thermostat at 78 will keep you comfortable. 5. During those rare cold days, set the thermostat at 68 to stay warm and limit your energy consumption. 6. Switch off overhead lights when the Christmas tree is lit. You can enjoy the warm ambiance of soft lights. 7. Give gifts that don’t require electricity. Think about how the items you gift might affect energy bills. 8. Bake several dishes in the oven at once. If the oven is on, then you might as well take advantage of the heat to multitask. 9. Use your toaster oven or microwave for smaller cooking tasks. 10. Cook with lids on pots to reduce energy use. 11. Unplug energy users such as TVs, gaming systems, printers and other electronics before you go on vacation and whenever they’re not in use. 12. Close exterior doors after guests arrive. 13. On cold days, put on a Christmas sweater. Adding another layer might help you feel warmer so you can turn down the thermostat.
Pecan Pie Mufns
1 cup chopped pecans 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup four
½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted 2 eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-size bowl, stir together pecans, brown sugar, four, baking powder and salt.
2. Add melted butter, eggs and vanilla to bowl and stir to mix well. 3. Spoon batter into a foil-lined mufn pan.
(Batter will stick to regular paper mufn
cups.) Fill each cup about full. Bake 20–25 minutes. MAKES 12 MUFFINS
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’Tis the Season for Extension Cords
’Tis the season to unpack the extension cords and plug way too many devices into them. Decorating for Christmas with lights, inflatable lawn ornaments, projectors and music might lead festive families to commit safety blunders—and chief among them is the misuse of extension cords.
Here are 10 tips from Electrical Safety Foundation International for using extension cords properly this holiday season. 1. Never plug an extension cord into another extension cord. They’re not designed for that kind of electrical load. 2. Choose an extension cord designed for outdoor use if you plan to use it outside. 3. Inspect your cords for damage, like cracks and loose wires. If they’re not in good shape, replace them. 4. Avoid hiding an extension cord under a rug. The cord could overheat and set the rug on fire. 5. Buy cords only if they’re approved by UL or another independent testing laboratory. 6. Keep cords away from water and snow. 7. Instead of nailing or stapling cords to your gutters or walls when you use them to power strands of holiday lights, use plastic hangers that won’t puncture the cords. 8. Don’t remove the third prong of a three-prong plug to force it into a two-prong outlet. Instead, buy an adapter. 9. Put your extension cords away with your holiday decorations. They’re designed for temporary, not permanent, use. 10. Avoid overloading a multiple-slot extension cord with too many devices. That cord has to plug into an outlet that can overheat if you overload it.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Wednesday, December 7
Hanukkah begins Sunday, December 18
Christmas Sunday, December 25 Our ofces will be closed December 26 in observance of the holiday.
